


take me home

by gingergenower



Series: do you feel lonely out there? [3]
Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Angst, F/M, Fluff, mermaid!Emma
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-19
Updated: 2016-11-19
Packaged: 2018-08-31 22:54:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,098
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8596972
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gingergenower/pseuds/gingergenower
Summary: His thumb strokes across the thin, blue membrane of her wrist.A mermaid AU.





	

She waits until he’s alone; she always does. 

None of the crew have seen her since she saved their lives, and he knows they itch with the memory. A _mermaid_ who spared their lives, enchanted the crew attacking them into drowning themselves, saved their captain. It feels as though the ship’s lurched from under you, staggering on lubber’s feet, the disbelief clapping you around the back of the head. Hook understands. She let him live when she had no reason to, and its unsaid between them as much as anything she doesn’t wish to talk about.

They’re anchored in a little port town they don’t visit too often, but the ale’s better than most and the company’s good. Smee’s left with the ship, and Hook takes a stroll along the beach with a bottle of rum in hand.

“Killian?”

He looks up, and her head rises out of the rolling waves, smile playing with corners of her mouth. Raising his bottle to her, he kicks his shoes off and falls to sitting at the edge of the tide, toes touching the water. She disappears under the surface, and re-emerges riding a wave to him.

Rolling on her back next to him, she grumbles. “I hate being beached.”

“Is it uncomfortable?”

Frowning, she takes the offered bottle from him and drinks. “It feels exposed.”

He relaxes back to lying down, admiring the stars. “It’s the same for humans in the water. We’re not as capable of defending ourselves.”

“Your capacity for swimming is limited.”

“We built ships for that very reason,” he says, and she grins, lying back herself.

He reaches out and takes her hand in his, sand clinging to her dampness. The hiss the waves emit as they break against the shore is soft, a gull in the distance cawing, and he’s tempted to close his eyes. His thumb strokes across the thin, blue membrane of her wrist.

Head slumping to the side, he sees her lips moving and realises she’s singing the song again. His brain doesn’t sluggishly acknowledge it, he isn’t sinking into weightlessness- he’s just listening. Her voice is sweet, gliding through the notes, but the song is mournful and quiet.

He squeezes her hand when she finishes. She smiles at him, tired.

“Love?”

She sits upright, shaking her hand free of his. Her gaze falls to her lap. “The other day- I was thinking. And. I’m never going to see my family again.”

He hauls himself upwards. She’s not crying but she is shaking, and he shuffles closer to her, hand pulling her into his chest. Her hands hold him, the fingers around his upper arm gripped so tight he thinks he might be the only thing real to her.

“We could look for them.”

She sighs, and doesn’t let go. “The sea’s as vast as the sky.”

“We could still try.”

She resettles in his arms, hands loosening. Her face rubs against his shirt, sighing. “No.”

Nodding, he says nothing else of it. 

“Do you have family?” Her hands play with his hook, smoothing themselves along it. 

“No.”

“Really?”

“I haven’t for a long time.”

Almost to herself, she murmurs; “orphans. Both of us.”

“It’s not the worst thing we could be.”

She blinks, twisting her head to look up at him.

“What?”

“You never fail to surprise me.”

He rolls his eyes, pulling her close to kiss the top of her head. “I assure you, the feeling is mutual.”

They sit until Emma wriggles, uncomfortable with drying out. Hook walks out with her, until he’s waist-deep in the tide and she’s looping circles around his knees. A hand swipes at the back of his knees and he buckles, submerging under the water and spluttering while she laughs.

“I take back everything I’ve said about you,” he says, slicking his hair back and finding his feet again. “All of the good things.”

Tail lifting out of the water, she slaps it down and splashes him in the face. “No you don’t.”

“Mermaids are evil, I was wrong, everything’s been disproved-”

“Can I show you something?”

Her eyes flash gleam through hair plastered across her face, holding his hand, and is he even supposed to be able to resist her?

He lets her drag him in- the water’s running warm, it’s less unpleasant- and she pulls him away from the beach and towards the sheer cliff with a few, scattered rocks pressed up against its side. 

She turns to him, pausing. “Hold your breath?”

Nodding, he takes a deep breath, plugging his nose and closing his eyes. He counts as she tugs him downwards, and doesn’t reach ten before they break the surface again, this time in utter darkness.

“Emma…?” he says, her hands letting go of him.

“Just give me a moment,” she says, and he hears a splash.

The sound echoes around him, even his breathing whispered back to him. He’s in some kind of cave, he surmises as he treads water, and he hears her surface next to him, hands catching him.

“Look,” she says, excited, and he wants to ask what, and then. 

Something in the water starts to glow.

Lots of little somethings, tiny orbs as fine as glitter fading in and out, at first just at the surface and then spreading deep, deep down, and it lights up the whole cavern. It’s huge, far bigger than he imagined, and there’s a rock formation sticking out of the water, slimy with seaweed but she pushes him towards it.

He clambers out of the water, staring down at the dancing lights, who bites her lip and holds her hands up.

“Well?”

“What _are_ they?”

“Sprites,” she says. “One of the few creatures in the sea that don’t mind mermaids, actually… what do you think?”

He can’t pull his eyes away. “They’re… they look like stars.”

She nods. “We sometimes call them that.”

Relaxing back, satisfied he’s simply taking in the view, she watches him.

“Can I ask you something?” he says, finally looking at her.

“Of course.”

“Why did you let me live, that first day we met each other?”

She swallows, catching a sprite in her cupped hands before she releases it again. “You looked sad, even when I told you to smile. I realised inflicting more pain wouldn’t alleviate my own.”

“You were calling sailors to their deaths because you were lonely?”

She nods.

He rubs his eyes, suddenly tired. “I understand that.”

They’ll talk about it another day. Instead, they watch the sprites blink in and out of brightness, moving through the water lazily until dawn.

**Author's Note:**

> Found the lyrics to the song I borrowed titles from : [http://ccmixter.org/files/kizzylotus/47456]  
> Feedback would be great, I haven't heard a wide range of opinions on this series yet :)


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